Be a Hero, Be a Organ Donor! AJ Hospital marks ‘WODD’
World Organ Donation Day (WODD) is celebrated worldwide on 13 August, and AJ Hospital and Research Centre-Mangaluru also observed it today with a core objective to bring awareness among the public on organ donation, its process, legal aspects, pledging, issuing donor card and also the road safety.
“There are estimated about 160 people per million who end up in end stage kidney failure, for which transplantation is the best option. There is a need for 25,000 kidney transplants every year but on the contrary 3,500 transplants are being done per year in India. There is substantial number of people who land up with liver failure too, who require transplantation. It is estimated that about 150,000 die in India due to road traffic accidents, out of which at least 50% people reach hospital and later declared “brain dead”. If about 20% of such people’s relatives come forward for cadaveric organ donation, it will help significant number of patients. in order to bring awareness about Organ Donation we have already launched ‘Jeevanvileena’ is a unique project for a great cause. Not many people are aware of Organ Donation, so in order to bring awareness of Organ Donation, this campaign has been launched, and we seek support from the public to a great extent” – Dr Prashanth Marla, Medical Director- AJ Hospital and Research Centre
Mangaluru: World Organ Donation Day (WODD) is celebrated on 13th of August every year by the people, government organizations and other related professions in order to motivate normal human beings to donate the organs as well as to understand the value of organ donation in the life of an individual. The organ donor can be anyone of which the organ can be transplanted to the patient urgently require. The organ donated by the normal human being is saved properly to transplant into the patient whenever he or she require. One can get the new life through the organ transplantation donated by someone.
It is learnt that at least more than 5 lakhs of the Indians are dying every year just because of the failure of their major functioning organs anytime. They still want to live their life as they are not fully satisfy with their life and want to live more but just because of the natural calamities they are unable to do so. The organ transplantation could play a major role in their beautiful life by increasing their period of living a life more than expectations. The donor of the organs plays a role of God in the life of organ transplanted person. One organ donor can save more than 8 lives in his life by donating his well function organs. The Organ Donation Day campaign, which is celebrated every year at August 13th, provides a great opportunity in everyone’s life to come ahead and pledge to donate their precious organs.
‘Heaven’ does not need organs but millions of people will have a fresh lease of life with the organs donated by ‘Brain Dead” patients making ‘Heaven on Earth” for them- and being a ‘Cadaver Donor’ is highly appreciated. A cadaver donor is a person who makes the decision to donate his or her body after death for the sake of scientific experiment and discovery, or for organ harvesting. Medical schools are perhaps the most common institutions to accept a cadaver donor, though private institutions may accept some donations as well. Hospitals may accept cadavers if some of the organs or tissue can be used for medical purposes. Frequently, the person must give consent to become a cadaver donor before he or she dies, though in some situations, the next of kin can grant the permission for the donation even if the deceased person did not grant permission before death.
The WODD programme began with invoking God’s blessings through a prayer song by Reshma and team, followed by lighting of the traditional lamp by the dignitaries namely Dr. Sunil P Shenoy, HOD, Urology, A J Hospital; Dr. Ashok Hegde, Dean, A J Institute of Medical Sciences; Dr. Bharath Shetty, Principal, A J Institute of Dental Sciences; Dr. S. Jayaram, Medical Superintendent, A J Institute of Medical Sciences; Dr. Raghavendra Nayak, Consultant Nephrologist, A J Hospital; Dr. Ramesh Pai, Ex-Dean, A J Institute of Medical Sciences; Dr. Shishir Shetty, President, Indian Dental Association, DK; Dr. Amitha Marla, Director Medical Administration; Dr. Prashanth Marla, Medical Director, and Ms. Shivani, Kidney Recipient.
Dr Sunil P Shenoy-HOD of Urology and Consultant Urologist welcomed the gathering and briefed about Organ Donation, and how it can save lives. Dr. Ashok Hegde, Dean, A J Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr. Shishir Shetty, President, Indian Dental Association, DK also spoke on Organ Donation. In his awareness talk on “Swap Transplantation” Dr Prashanth Marla-Consultant Urologist and Transplant Surgeon said, ” Kidney exchange or ‘swap’ is a simple barter system. It is a ’give and take’ deal between two pairs of people, each pair consisting of a giver and a taker, where each pair benefits by receiving a suitably matched organ. In this simple barter framework, it is possible to maximize returns exponentially when the pool is large and complex algorithms for exchange are built into it.”
” A swap pair consists of a recipient (patient) and a donor (a family member). These pairs are such that they cannot ordinarily donate an organ to each other. This could happen because of blood group incompatibility or a tissue incompatibility. A Swap transplant involves an exchange of organs between two families, who cannot donate the organ to their own family member because of blood group mismatch. This is in a sense ‘paired exchange’. This would minimize this shortfall of organs and increase transplant numbers legally. In this method there is a mechanism for organ sharing between two unrelated donor-recipient pairs. By doing a swap, two patients with kidney failure who in normal circumstances cannot undergo a transplant because of blood group mismatch within that family, can now go ahead with kidney transplantation. Once there is a match, your nephrologist will be informed and your surgery will be done by your transplant team at the hospital of your choice.” added Dr Marla.
Speaking on “Deceased Organ Transplantation “, Dr Raghavendra Nayak-Consultant Nephrologist said, ” What is brain dead? If a person with head injury, where all the organs function normally except the brain stem (an irreversible condition) is neurologically defined as “brain dead”. Their heart beats but the lungs need to be expanded by mechanical ventilator support to maintain body oxygenation. If left, patient would be dependent on ventilator forever till the heart seizes / stops its function. You may have heard of organ donation now and then, but do you really know what it means? You may also have a preconceived notion about what it means to donate organs. For example, a lot of people think that whenever and however they die, their organs can be donated. That is not true. Organ donation is the process of Retrieving or Procuring an organ from a live or deceased person known as a “Donor”. The process of recovering organs is called “Harvesting”. This organ is transplanted into the “recipient” who is in need of that organ.”
“There are two types of organ donation – Live Donation & Deceased or Cadaver Donation. Live Donation is from a healthy and living person. This can only be done in the case of a liver or a kidney (because the liver can grow back to its normal size, and a donor can survive on one kidney). So if a near relative of yours needs a liver or a kidney, anyone in the immediate family can donate to them. When we talk about pledging your organs or about organ donation, we are talking about Deceased organ donation or cadaver organ donation. This is organ donation from a person who has been declared brain dead by a team of authorized doctors at a hospital. A person is said to be brain dead when there is an irreversible loss of consciousness, absence of brain stem reflexes and no spontaneous respiration.” added Dr Nayak.
Shivani, a teenage girl who is a Organ recipient (read the full interview by Team Mangalorean below) also spoke and narrated her story as how she underwent the surgery, and also thanked everyone, including her mother who gave her a new life. Pledge Card was also released during the occasion by Dr Prashanth Marla and Dr. Shubhan Alva, President, IDA, India to Doctors from A J Insititute of Dental Sciences, which was followed by a Audio Video presentation on Organ Donation. Vijayakanth and Babu AV, members of the Organ Donors family were also honored during the occasion. Vote of thanks was proposed by Mrs. Nirmala Kumari, Officer Quality and Dr Swathi Rai compered the programme.
In conclusion, It’s the honor of medical researchers who had experimented for years with many failures for getting the successful results over the organ donation as well as organ transplantation in the life human beings. Finally they got the successful result over the crucial process of organ transplanting. The organs which can be successfully transmitted are kidneys, livers, Bone marrow, hearts, lungs, cornea, pancreases, small bowels through the medical treatments. The organs transplantation and donation both of the process can be successfully done because of the development of immuno-suppressive drugs which can increase the survival rate of organ recipients. Because of the growth and development of the new technologies and therapies in the modern life, the need of the organ transplants is continuously increasing with the great extents which need more organ donation every year. Instead of availability of the great technologies and therapies the death rate has increased because of the shortage of transplant-able organs.
The Objectives of observing Organ Donation Day is: to aware the people about the need of organ donation; To distribute the messages of organ donation all over the country; To remove the hesitations of the people about donating organs; To say a grateful thanks to the donors of organs; and To motivate and encourage more people towards organ donation in their life. Be a Hero, Be a Organ Donor- and save lives.
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